It was supposed to be an ordinary Friday morning in one of the Bay Area’s quietest neighborhoods.

Then neighbors heard two gunshots.

Around 10:43 a.m. on October 2, police rushed to a home on Panoramic Way in the Oakland Hills, near the Berkeley border and just east of the University of California, Berkeley campus.

Outside the residence, officers found a 61-year-old man and a 63-year-old woman suffering from gunshot wounds.

They were both residents of the neighborhood.

Despite efforts to save them, both died at the scene. A firearm was recovered nearby.

At first, authorities released few details.

There was no suspect being sought. Police said there was no ongoing threat to the surrounding community.

But one question immediately became the center of the investigation:

What happened inside — or outside — that home?

Police have not determined who fired the weapon or what led to the deaths. Investigators have also not ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide.

The victims were later identified by friends and colleagues as Bryan Walker, 61, and Michelle Min, 63, the married couple behind the Berkeley-based women’s fashion brand Bryn Walker. The company was founded in 1992 and grew into a business whose clothing is sold through roughly 1,000 boutiques nationwide.

For neighbors who have lived on the hillside for years, the incident was almost impossible to believe.

One longtime resident told CBS that he had lived in the area for more than two decades and had never witnessed violent crime there. Another neighbor described the sound as two bangs, close together.

Even more unsettling, surveillance audio reportedly captured a gunshot, followed by the sound of a man crying and screaming, and then another gunshot. CBS reported that the audio was not broadcast.

Now, investigators are working to reconstruct those final moments.

Who fired the first shot?

Why were the two people outside the home?

And what happened in the seconds between the two sounds that neighbors heard?

Authorities have not publicly answered those questions.

For now, the Oakland Hills remains quiet — but behind one home near Berkeley, investigators are trying to piece together a tragedy that has left an entire neighborhood searching for answers.

Two shots. Two lives lost. And a mystery that police have yet to fully explain.

The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not publicly determined the circumstances or motive.

SOURCES
PEOPLE – Couple Found Fatally Shot Outside Home Near UC Berkeley
CBS San Francisco – Married Couple Shot Dead Outside Oakland Hills Home
ABC7 San Francisco – Bryan Walker and Michelle Min Identified
Los Angeles Times – Berkeley Fashion Brand Founders Killed
San Francisco Chronicle – Fashion Designers Identified as Victims